Lamentations 2 (New American Standard Bible)

Lamentations 2

God's Anger over Israel

    ¹How the Lord has ^(A)covered the daughter of Zion
         With a cloud in His anger!
         He has ^(B)cast from heaven to earth
         The ^(C)glory of Israel,
         And has not remembered His ^(D)footstool
         In the day of His anger.
    ²The Lord has ^(E)swallowed up; He has not spared
         All the habitations of Jacob
         In His wrath He has ^(F)thrown down
         The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
         He has ^(G)brought them down to the ground;
         He has ^(H)profaned the kingdom and its princes.
    ³In fierce anger He has cut off
         All the ^(I)strength of Israel;
         He has ^(J)drawn back His right hand
         From before the enemy
         And He has ^(K)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
         Consuming round about.
    ⁴He has bent His ^(L)bow like an enemy;
         He has set His right hand like an adversary
         And slain all that were ^(M)pleasant to the eye;
         In the tent of the daughter of Zion
         He has ^(N)poured out His wrath like fire.
    ⁵The Lord has become like an ^(O)enemy
         He has ^(P)swallowed up Israel;
         He has swallowed up all its ^(Q)palaces,
         He has destroyed its strongholds
         And ^(R)multiplied in the daughter of Judah
         Mourning and moaning.
    ⁶And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth;
         He has ^(S)destroyed His appointed meeting place
         The LORD has ^(T)caused to be forgotten
         The appointed feast and sabbath in Zion,
         And He has ^(U)despised king and priest
         In the indignation of His anger.
    ⁷The Lord has ^(V)rejected His altar,
         He has abandoned His sanctuary;
         He ^(W)has delivered into the hand of the enemy
         The walls of her palaces
         They have made a ^(X)noise in the house of the LORD
         As in the day of an appointed feast.
    ⁸The LORD determined to destroy
         The wall of the daughter of Zion.
         He has ^(Y)stretched out a line,
         He has not restrained His hand from destroying,
         And He has ^(Z)caused rampart and wall to lament;
         They have languished together.
    ⁹Her ^(AA)gates have sunk into the ground,
         He has destroyed and broken her bars
         Her king and her princes are among the nations;
         The ^(AB)law is no more
         Also, her prophets find
         ^(AC)No vision from the LORD.
    ¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion
         ^(AD)Sit on the ground, they ^(AE)are silent
         They have thrown ^(AF)dust on their heads;
         They have girded themselves with ^(AG)sackcloth
         The ^(AH)virgins of Jerusalem
         Have bowed their heads to the ground.
    ¹¹My ^(AI)eyes fail because of tears,
         My ^(AJ)spirit is greatly troubled;
         My ^(AK)heart is poured out on the earth
         ^(AL)Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
         When ^(AM)little ones and infants faint
         In the streets of the city.
    ¹²They say to their mothers,
         "^(AN)Where is grain and wine?"
         As they faint like a wounded man
         In the streets of the city,
         As their ^(AO)life is poured out
         On their mothers' bosom.
    ¹³How shall I admonish you?
         To what ^(AP)shall I compare you,
         O daughter of Jerusalem?
         To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,
         O ^(AQ)virgin daughter of Zion?
         For your ruin is as vast as the sea;
         Who can ^(AR)heal you?
    ¹⁴Your ^(AS)prophets have seen for you
         False and foolish visions;
         And they have not ^(AT)exposed your iniquity
         So as to restore you from captivity,
         But they have ^(AU)seen for you false and misleading oracles.
    ¹⁵All who pass along the way
         ^(AV)Clap their hands in derision at you;
         They ^(AW)hiss and shake their heads
         At the daughter of Jerusalem,
         "Is this the city of which they said,
         '^(AX)The perfection of beauty,
         ^(AY)A joy to all the earth'?"
    ¹⁶All ^(AZ)your enemies
         Have opened their mouths wide against you;
         They hiss and ^(BA)gnash their teeth
         They say, "We have ^(BB)swallowed her up!
         Surely this is the ^(BC)day for which we waited;
         We have reached it, we have seen it."
    ¹⁷The LORD has ^(BD)done what He purposed;
         He has accomplished His word
         Which He commanded from days of old
         He has thrown down ^(BE)without sparing,
         And He has caused the enemy to ^(BF)rejoice over you;
         He has ^(BG)exalted the might of your adversaries.
    ¹⁸Their ^(BH)heart cried out to the Lord,
         "O ^(BI)wall of the daughter of Zion,
         Let your ^(BJ)tears run down like a river day and night;
         Give yourself no relief,
         Let your eyes have no rest.
    ¹⁹"Arise, cry aloud in the ^(BK)night
         At the beginning of the night watches;
         ^(BL)Pour out your heart like water
         Before the presence of the Lord;
         Lift up your hands to Him
         For the ^(BM)life of your little ones
         Who are ^(BN)faint because of hunger
         At the head of every street."
    ²⁰See, O LORD, and look!
         With ^(BO)whom have You dealt thus?
         Should women ^(BP)eat their offspring,
         The little ones who were born healthy?
         Should ^(BQ)priest and prophet be slain
         In the sanctuary of the Lord?
    ²¹On the ground in the streets
         Lie ^(BR)young and old;
         My ^(BS)virgins and my young men
         Have fallen by the sword
         You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
         You have slaughtered, ^(BT)not sparing.
    ²²You called as in the day of an appointed feast
         My ^(BU)terrors on every side;
         And there was ^(BV)no one who escaped or survived
         In the day of the LORD'S anger
         Those ^(BW)whom I bore and reared,
         My enemy annihilated them.